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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 7 Hansard (24 September) . . Page.. 2196 ..

MR MOORE (continuing):

the ACT will raise charges against another State for persons who are normally resident in that State and are provided with treatment in the ACT. I commend the new health care agreement to this Assembly. I present the following paper:

Australian Health Care Agreement - 1998-2003 - Ministerial statement, 24 September 1998.

I move:

That the Assembly takes note of the paper.

Debate (on motion by Mr Stanhope) adjourned.

MR MOORE (Minister for Health and Community Care) (3.44): Mr Speaker, I ask for leave of the Assembly to make a ministerial statement on the joint venture agreement to design and build the community health information system.

Leave granted.

MR MOORE: Mr Speaker, in my short time as Minister for Health and Community Care, one of the most encouraging developments has been the move towards a community-based health system. It is the basis of my credo, "Setting the Agenda", and I am pleased to report that is gaining wide support within Canberra and the surrounding region. With this trend firmly in my mind, I want to commend to this Assembly the community care area of the health portfolio, and its involvement in an integrated community health information system.

Mr Speaker, in 1996 the ACT agreed to a partnership with the health departments of New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia to develop an integrated community health information system. The project plans to improve the management of public sector, community-based health services from both service delivery and policy-making perspectives. Mr Speaker, the expected benefits of the project include a reduction in proportion of clinicians' time spent on administrative tasks; a more effective transfer of clients from acute-care facilities to community-based care and better linkages with other elements of the health care system; an improved ability to identify clinical pathways; more effective benchmarking through the application of national standards; and better information to enable more efficient system management.

The original joint venture agreement between the community health information management enterprise partners provided the basis for the development of the functional specifications for the system. These are now complete. The new joint venture agreement will apply to the subsequent stages of the development. The new joint venture agreement, which has now been signed, deals with the next stages of development. These include stage 3, system build; stage 4, system rollout; stage 5, ongoing maintenance and support.

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